Vegan Collard Greens

1 big bag of collard greens
3 strips of smoked tempeh
1 leek or one small onion
olive oil
liquid smoke
vegetable stock
salt
vinegar (I used Braggs apple cider vinegar with "The Mother"

Directions:
pour two tablespoons of olive oil into pan and throw in leek or onion, saute for about 2 min then chop up the tempeh and throw that in and saute another couple of minutes. Then stuff as much greens as possible into pot, salt them, put a couple of small splashes of liquid smoke and immediately pour some vegetable stock in about 8 oz. Boil for 5 min or however long you like, until the greens are done to your liking. That's it, healthy and really easy. At the end I put about 2 tsp of vinegar in the pot and stir. You could put some more vinegar in there afterwards or some hot sauce, it's up to you. These greens come out so smokey and tangy, I personally thought this was awsome. I made up the recipe myself today cause I had a bag full of greens to cook before they went bad.

Mushroom Pate

This was so very yummy! My hubby hates mushrooms, so I invited my mushroom loving mommy over for this appetizer and then we had a mushroom and spinach pie I made (recipe forthcoming). Oh, the reason for so many mushroom dishes is this sweet lady brings veggies by my husbands shop and this time she brought a huge bag full of yummy shrooms.

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 1/2 cups shiitake mushrooms, stems trimmed, wiped clean and coarsely chopped
• 1  1/2 cups portabella or oyster mushrooms or white button or cremini
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 handful of walnuts
• 1 teaspoon truffle oil or olive oil or grape seed oil
• 4 ounces softened cream cheese
• 4 ounces softened goat cheese

In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the shallots and garlic and cook, stirring, until soft  about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring, until wilted and starting to brown. Add the wine, thyme, salt, and pepper, and cook, stirring, until the wine is nearly all evaporated, 5 minutes. Add whatever oil you have chosen, any will do except vegetable oil of course. Place everything in a food processor and add the cheese while processing, combining well. Then refrigerate at least an hour.

This is so yummy on your favorite cracker, what me and my mom did was spread a little goat cheese over the cracker and topped it off with the mushroom pate, oh it was heavenly! By the way you can use whatever mushrooms you like and have on hand. You could also after a couple of days of eating and your bored add some kalamata olives and put a couple tablespoons over some pasta, yummy!

White Bean Veggie Chili

1 can Great Northern Beans (not drained)
1 can Garbonzo beans drained
1 can of diced or stewed tomatos (if stewed chop them up)
1/4 cup of white wine if you have it if not no worries
I small can of green chilies
1 small apple, secret ingredient
2-4 large carrots chopped (depending on how many carrots you like in your stew)
1 small onion chopped
1 handful of fresh oregano and or basil
handful of garlic
fresh herbs, I chose oregano, you could use both oregano and basil or one or the other
2 cans vegetable stock


Get out a saute pan, then slap in some olive oil, saute the chopped carrots, onion and garlic together,  then in anouther pot (large enough for the chili), pour in garbonzo beans and great northern beans, stewed or diced tomatoes and green chiliies and wine if you have it. Then after the carrots and onion and garlic are soft after about 10 min, stir them into the pot of beans and stewed tomatos, then add in the fresh chopped herbs if you have them on hand, if not just add dried. Then pour in some white wine and your veggie stock.  Let simmer on low for anouther half hour. The longer it simmers on low the better the flavors are. You really want it to be semi thick so if it's still thin then you know you need to simmer a bit longer, but if you like it that way by all means eat it lol. Just remember to put the apple in about a half hour before you are going to take it off the stove.

The apple in the secret ingredient allows this dish to be a bit sweet and tastes a little like potato when boiled in this chili.

Red Beet Salad

I love the earthy taste of beets and the fact they are good for you is a bonus! My hubby has even started to like them, well he wont eat the red but the yellow ones he will. (hey it's a start). Oh and don't let your eyes fool you the smaller beets taste better and have more concentrated sugar and have been in the ground for less time, making them sweeter and less bitter, fresher and less of a harsh taste


1 bunch of red beets or packaged beets (you could also use yellow beets)
1 handful of fresh mint or basil
1 cup of shredded carrots
1 glug of olive oil
1 glug of balamic vinigar
salt and pepper to taste
Feta cheese if desired

Mix all ingredients together. The longer the flavors meld the better but can be eaten right away.

Greek Pizza with Pita Bread

I love pita bread and grew up eating it at my mother's house dipping it into hummus. It's even better in a homemade pizza because its a bit flatter and gets crispier and is cheaper than that pizza bolis stuff, it's a tripple threat bread and I love it. Oh and also the fact you can open it up and stuff things into it is awsome too! This is really fun to do with kids and what i did was chop up some toppings and slapped them onto a paper plate (or little bowls work too), and let the kids dress their pizza with whatever they wanted.

Ingredients
Package of pita bread
toppings of your choice but I will list some here, all are optional
Pesto for the base on the bottom or pasta sauce
Slightly sauted mushrooms (I used portabella)
Romain lettuce (I know lettuce on pizza weird but it works)
Sauted garlic
Kalamata olives sliced or black olives
Spinach instead of Romain
Tomatoes
Artichokes
Red onion
Chopped basil
Parmesean cheese
mozzerella cheese ( I splurged and got the expensive kind you see in liquid)
black beans (not greek but my kids love them)

Lay out all your toppings on the table and let the family go to town laying on the base you choose first (my mom mixed the red pasta sauce with the pesto and it was very tasty). Don't put too many toppings on or your pizza will topple. Put your toppings on first or the way my husband does it is put the cheese on first then the toppings ( I like it the other way around) whatever you thing is good works, then slap it in the oven for about 15 min. The bread is already cooked so you just want the cheese to melt and let it stay in the oven for however long you want, I like my kinda crispy so I leave it in till it crisps up a bit.

For the Meat Man (or woman) in your life you can set aside some of these toppings
Ham
Chicken
Chorzio Sausage
Ground hamburger

Tip: the rest of the unused toppings for sandwiches the next day into the pita!

I served this with a yellow beet and feta salad. (recipe forthcoming)

Stuffed Zuchinni

1 or 2 large zuchini or however much you want
1 log of goat cheese
1 bunch of mint or basil or herb of your choice (mint works best though)
handful of mozzerella cheese
slug of olive oil
tin foil

Slice the zuke but be carful not to slice all the way through, put a tiny bit of olive oil on the outside of the zuke and salt and pepper the outside. Salt and pepper inside of zuke. Take the goat cheese and mix in some chopped mint (or other herb you have chosen). I usually mix it in with my hands, then roll it like you do with playdough into a long worm and stuff the zuke with this mixture, then put a little slug of olive oil over the zuke, then top and mush in some mozzerella cheese. Take your tinfoil and roll the zuke up in it. Then bake in oven or toaster oven about 30 - 40 min.

What to serve with baked zukes:
Serve with a side of pasta
Serve with a side of eggplant parmesan
Serve with some crusty bread and a greek salad
Serve with baked tofu

Kombu Dashi

 

 

Ingredients

4 cups water
1 piece Eden Kombu, 4 to 6 inches long

 

Directions

Place water and kombu in a pot. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the flame to medium-low and simmer 5 minutes. Remove the kombu and use in other dishes or make a second soup stock with it.

The dashi stock is now ready to season with Eden Shoyu Soy Sauce or any Eden Organic Miso for broth, or to add vegetables and other ingredients to make soups, stews, sauces, or gravies.

Other ingredients such as sliced Eden Shiitake Mushrooms, or Eden Dried Daikon Radish can also be added at the beginning of cooking to create various flavored dashi.

I got this recipe from Eden Organics

What you can do with Kombu Dashi:

Make soup with it, toss in some tofu and some cut up seaweed, bok choy, spinach or kale, throw in some diced carrots, add mushrooms.

You can freeze this stock to use for later recipes

You can also place a 12 inch strip of kombu into 8 cups of water and place in a bowl overnight in the fridge

Ceviche

I know this is not vegitarian but I really love ceviche and have been traditionally making it for a long time and it also has memories from my hubby and I when we went to mexico.

Ceviche is an authentic Mexican dish. It is made using any type of raw fish and is “cooked” in an acidic liquid, such as lemons and limes. The acidity in the limes and lemons actually cooks the fish overnight. This is a great summer dish for parties or an appetizer and will just get better over time in the refrigerator. Serve with tortilla chips or pita chips. This is a very versatile dish however, you can make it how you want, and it is done in many ways.

3 limes

3 lemons

1 lb of white seafood (shrimp, scallops, sea bass, catfish, flounder, halibut, you can put one of these in or mix and match)

1 tsp (or 2 if you dare) of Tabasco sauce or any hot sauce you like

1 green pepper chopped

1 onion chopped

3 roma tomatoes chopped

3-4 jalapeño peppers chopped (seeds taken out) unless you like it hot

1 bunch of cilantro

1tsp white pepper

2 tsp sea salt

You can put a pinch of coriander and or nutmeg in this also, it’s up to you

Instructions

Squeeze the limes and lemons into a bowl big enough to put everything into. Chop all your seafood into 1 inch chunks or smaller (remember these are going on tortilla chips). Place chopped seafood into bowl of lemons and limes. Chop up half the cilantro and put into bowl with seafood. Put in spices and Tabasco. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for a couple of hours. Then Chop all your veggies. Make sure to chop it right because you don’t want mushy vegetables. Then put your veggies in with the marinated seafood. It’s ok that the seafood isn’t cooked yet, it will be, but you need to let the veggies marinate along with it. Stir. Then when ready to serve chop up rest of cilantro and throw it in. Drain any major liquid out and serve with chips of your choice.

Tip: life takes up too much time, when I do this dish I usually go to the salad bar and get the onions already chopped for me and the green peppers already sliced, and the tomatoes. This makes it much faster! I do the same when I want to make pizza. The salad bar aint’ just for salads anymore!

White Bean Hummus

2 cans of any white beans of your choice  rinsed and drained (I used northern beans)
2 tablespoons of tahini
2-3 tablespoons of an Herb of your choice, I used oregano but you could use basil

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1 clove of garlic (I used two, I love garlic)
Juice of one lemon (or more if you like the lemony taste)
Salt to taste

Chop up the herbs then throw it all into a food processor or blender and hit frappe'
Then taste, if you need to add a little more of whatever you like to make it to your taste.

What I did:
I made this then the over the next couple of days (I don't like monotony, it's boring) I added kalamata olives and some olive oil and some pine nuts and whala new taste and yummy.

How to use hummus:
Dip carrots in it
Dip raw peppers in it, yellow green and red
Dip bread in it
Spread onto a sandwhich and add a tomato and or alfalfa srpouts and make a sandwhich
Anyone got any other suggestions?
Hope you Enjoy